Week 5

It’s already the end of March! I swear it was just my birthday I don’t really know how this keeps happening!

The Best: This was a really awesome week. The best part of the week was Saturday. Emily and I went for a run and we did callisthenics after which felt great. I spend most of the morning reading (I have already read 5 books since I have been here and have started my 6th! I love all the downtime I have to read, wow!) and then in the afternoon we met up with our neighbor Majo who is our age and she walked us to Barrio Güemes which is a really fun, young neighborhood and then it started raining. So we ran into the mall called Patiolmos and walked around there for a bit! After we went home and got ready and went to the artesian Market and then went to a few bars in the neighborhood. It was just such a fun atmosphere and having the chance to finally know where things are and to have that feeling of knowing where we were going was so nice! I am starting to feel so at home here in Córdoba.

The Most Challenging: This week I think the most challenging was the Dia de la Memoria. Friday was a holiday to remember the Coup that happen in 1976. That was the start of the dictatorship here in Argentina and between the years of 1976 and 1983 30,000 people disappeared. On Thursday we went to a Museum in Córdoba that used to be a jail where they tortured and killed people. The saddest part is that is shares a wall with the Cathedral. How no one heard screams is beyond me. We learned that if you had anything that was thought of as against the dictatorship you could be taken. If you had a book that wasn’t in agreement, if you were a college student, or even if you were neighbors with someone. Next to the museum in Córdoba this whole week and weekend there were pictures of people who have disappeared and have still not been found. Most of the people haven’t. If a women was taken while she was pregnant, they usually had her deliver the baby then killed her and gave the baby to a family who agreed with the dictatorship. There are all sorts of stories about children finding out years later that their parents were actually killed and they were given to new families. It was so hard to hear about but so incredibly interesting. I’ll attach some photos below.

The Weirdest: This past Monday, our teacher Juan Carlos made us go join his anthropology class and play this game called BaFaBa with his Argentinian students. One I was super bad at it, but at least everyone was super nice. Juan Carlos didn’t tell anyone that he was changing class though and kind of messed up everyones schedule so that was kind of a pain and the class was strange but it wasn’t horrible.

The top two pictures are at the jail in between the Cathedral and jail. The pictures are all of people that are still missing. The bottom left picture is in Güemes at a Cerveceria, which a a Beer Store, and it was amazing. The middle bottom is a picture of me and my friend Pinky at the bar and the bottom right hand picture are my friends Micaela and Emily playing cards in the park.

The rest of the week was pretty good. Monday was pretty normal besides our change in class. Tuesday we had Praxis and since it’s a pretty liberal place, we learned a lot about the dictatorship and even watched part of a movie. We also learned about the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo which is also super interesting if you want to google it. They also talked a lot about how the current president, Macri, wants to get ride of the Dia de la Memoria because he says there are too many days remembering the past in Argentina. The Argentinans we talked to said it was in comparison as if the USA got rid of MLK Jr Day in January. Wednesday was also Praxis and we helped get school supplies ready and sat in on meetings about the after school programs that La Luci has for the kids of the guys selling the magazines. Thursday was normal too, we didn’t have class the next day so we watched Pitch Perfect and got ice cream. Friday we didn’t have class but we had workshops at our house about Dia de la Memoria. We also had family dinner where Jake and Jackie made homemade pesto and it was amazing. We invited a few classmates and neighbors to dinner too which was super fun. After we watched Mean Girls. Sunday was kind of rainy so we did homework in the morning and once it cleared we went to the park and Emily and I went for a run. It’s been so incredible these last 5 weeks having such amazing people around me challenging me in my thoughts and always asking me to dig deeper and it’s also made me so thankful for the amazing people in my life back home as well. Without them in my life I honestly don’t know what I would do. Currently trying my best to stay in the moment and not try to plan things as much which is pretty difficult for me (ask my roommates) but everyday it’s getting better! Can’t wait for my parents to come next week! Chau till then!